Monterey's Bay View Academy proposes to double size

Less than two years after opening, officials at Bay View Academy charter school in Monterey are launching plans to expand the school and eventually double its size.

In conjunction with its application to renew its two-year permit, Bay View representatives also applied to have the school grow to K-8 and house 580 students.

The enrollment growth would be gradual. The school has about 230 students in K-5 classes; In its first year, it had 184.

"We've been discussing this for a long time, even way back in the beginning," said Bill Shaw, president of the school's board of directors. "When the county granted us a two-year term, everybody saw that would be a good chance to consider expanding the school to six, seven, and eight (grades). It's a natural time to consider it."

The school was originally granted a two-year permit to operate from the Monterey County Board of Education in 2011. At the time, Associate Superintendent of Finance Garry Bousum said two years would be sufficient to prove whether the charter was viable.

The school went on to a good first year after a rocky start with a principal who later departed. Veteran administrator John Favero took over the school in November 2011 and continued through the end of the school year.

Bay View reached 849 on the Academic Performance Index in its inaugural year, an impressive feat for a new school. The state performance target is 800.

The plan for growth would be to expand two grades per year — an additional upper grade and another lower grade class. The school now has two kindergarten, first and second grades, plus one third, fourth and fifth. The expansion would add a third grade classroom, and a sixth grade class beginning this fall, and so on each year until the school had all grades by 2015. Capacity would be reached by 2018.

The biggest issue school officials will face is finding space for the growth. The school consists of nine classrooms, a library and some space for administration. The school shares its campus at 222 Casa Verde Way with an adult school program, and is running out of room.

"We know we have site limitations, so hopefully we can work things out so we can grow," said Elisa Tacconi, the school's principal.

Officials have asked the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District for the former site of Bay View Elementary, but the district is planning to use it for a child care center.

A MPUSD spokeswoman said Bay View needs to have an approved charter petition to consider the request for expansion.

"Our preference is to stay at one site and not to split our school," Tacconi said. "In our ... request for facilities we did request the Bay View elementary site, but we're also happy where we are. We are in a perfect situation, but we don't have room to grow."

Administrators with the Monterey County Board of Education will review the petition during the next 30 days, and hold a public hearing about it on Feb. 6. A decision is scheduled to be announced March 6.